Caster Build
Characters that fall into this category rely heavily on spells. Spells are cast by using the character's stamina pool and is thus somewhat limited. Additionally, wearing armor makes spell casting harder, or in some cases impossible, to do. This combined with attribute allocations can lead to casters being quite fragile. Attributes & Stats Attributes *''Strength'' - not very useful for a caster. *''Size'' - not very useful, unless you are wanting hit points. *''Agility'' - marginally useful as this attribute can increase defense rating. *''Reflexes'' - marginally useful as this attribute increases initiative and higher scores allow access to Nimbleness to increase defense rating. *''Constitution'' - very useful for a caster. This attribute increases hit points, stamina pool, and determines stamina recovery rate. *''Fortitude'' - useful for a caster. This attribute increases hit points, defensive staging, hit points, and stamina pool. *''Reasoning'' - useful for a caster. This attribute gives extra skills points and makes spell research easier. *''Willpower'' - very useful for a caster, especially for psychics and manipulators. This attribute increases hit points and stamina pool. *''Spirit'' - very useful for a caster, especially for arcane and elemental casters. This attribute increases hit points. *''Perception'' - useful for a caster. This attribute makes the character harder to surprise and higher scores combined with Combat Perception can increase defense rating. Stamina Stamina is the life blood of a caster. Without stamina, the caster is virtually useless. As a result, stamina pool and stamina recovery rate are of extreme importance. Stamina pool and stamina recovery rate are two very important stats for any caster. A larger pool allows the character to cast more spells before having to rest to recover stamina. Stamina pool is calculated with Constitution, Fortitude, Willpower, and Spirit. Stamina recovery rate is calculated with Constitution alone. Defense Rating Defense rating is a number that describes how easy or hard it is to hit the character. Having a high agility to size ratio will help make this a higher number. Additionally, having a high Reflex score will allow access to heroic characteristics that can increase the DR as well. Having a high Perception score will also allow access to a DR increasing HC. Hit Points Traits & Heroic Characteristics Casting In order to cast spells the character will need one of three traits: Thaumaturge, Psion, or Manipulator. Thaumaturge gives access to the arcane and elemental disciplines, Psion gives access to the Psychic disciplines and Manipulator gives access to the Manipulation discipline. After the character has grown, taking Innate Infusion for a commonly used spell is a good idea. Longevity Taking the Stamina trait is a good way to gain a larger stamina pool as it gives a +4 to stamina pool. This is equivalent to 4 attributes spread between Spirit, Willpower, Constitution and Fortitude. Another trait is Blood Magician. This allows the character to take MB damage instead of using stamina to cast a spell. This trait is especially good for characters will very fast healing (i.e. high Constitution score). Survivability If your character does not have access to the Contingency spell, taking the Contingent Effect heroic characteristic may be useful. This heroic characteristic allows a spell to be cast and stored. Once a trigger condition is met, the spell will automatically cast. There are a couple of ways to increase the characters defense rating depending on if the character will be wearing armor. For characters that will be wearing armor, it is a good idea to take enough ranks of Armor Proficiency to negate the casting penalty. On the other hand, if the character does not wear armor, then taking Lightning Reflexes and Nimbleness can increase the DR provided the Reflex score is high enough. As an alternative or addition to the heroic characteristics above and if the character's perception is high enough, then taking Combat Perception can also increase the character's defense rating. Divine If the character has the Holy discipline or is a Shuri then the following heroic characteristics can be accessed. Other * Eidectic Memory - This trait helps when trying to research skills and spells. * Occult Library - This set of traits also helps with researching skills and spells. Skills * Meditation * Spellcraft * Ethereal Accuracy * Dodge